Rie Nørregaard – Co-founder and Creative Director of OMHU

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Rie Nørregaard - Co-founder and Creative Director of OMHU

Rie Nørregaard is the Co-founder and Creative Director at OMHU. Rie has worked as a creative director at leading design firms, creating design solutions for well-known consumer brands such as OXO, Johnson & Johnson, Samsung, Microsoft, Nike and Sony Ericsson. Rie is a color trend forecaster and frequent speaker in the international design community.

Tell us a bit more about OMHU?

Omhu is Danish for “with great care.”  Founded on the belief that life is imperfect and beautiful, we offer groundbreaking designs to support people’s abilities as they change throughout life.
We started Omhu after searching in vain for well-designed products for relatives and friends who needed help with simple tasks such as walking, bathing, or reaching overhead. Pooling our collective experience in design and fashion, we’ve created a brand for people like us —caregivers who want more inspired and inspiring choices for the people they love.
Omhu celebrates good design because it’s life-enhancing, and it’s fun.  By creating more exciting choices of things that help, we hope we can also help change the way people feel about aging and ability.  Because everyone’s getting older – even you!

What are you working on right now?

I’m working with our design collective on some new products for Omhu that we’re we’re launching this year – and we just started a project with See ChangeNYC to redesign a local senior center.

3 trends that excite you?

I love micro lending.
Barefoot running.
People are getting older.

How do you bring ideas to life?

I work with designers who get it. And I use lego blocks and any pen or pencil around.I even like a whiteboard!

What inspires you?

Things that don’t make sense. Running.  Food.  Love.  Not necessarily in that order.

What is one mistake you’ve made, and what did you learn from it?

Once I worked really hard on a design problem, but I didn’t see that the circumstances and my client’s point of view had changed – but I was too focused on the design it self – too deep into it. So I learned to pay attention to the whole picture.

What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?

This isn’t really my idea – but I’m willing to share it: Sometimes the best thing you can do is nothing.

What is one book and one tool that helps you bring ideas to life?

I have this big old book on Scandinavian chairs – and the camera on my iPhone.

Who would you love to see interviewed on IdeaMensch?

Sheena Matheiken of The Uniform Project

Tell us a bit more about yourself?

I’m always onto the next thing. Not interested in something I made already – except if there’s a chance to make it better. I can’t imagine not working my whole life somehow – I love working.

Are you happy?

Right now I’m totally happy.

Connect:

Rie Nørregaard on LinkedIn –  http://www.linkedin.com/pub/rie-n%C3%B8rregaard/3/5b8/4a
OMHU –